I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.

It is a mistake to think that the price of my art has become easy to me.

I love it when an aria fits a singer as perfectly as a suit of well-tailored clothes.

Believe me, my sole purpose is to make as much money as possible; for after good health it is the best thing to have.

The taste of death is upon my lips. I feel something that is not of this earth.

When I am traveling in a carriage, or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep; it is on such occasions that ideas flow best and most abundantly.

I should like to know for what reason idleness is so popular with many young people that it is impossible to dissuade them from it either by words or by chastisements.